Channel Best-Sellers: Systems/Storage

According to data from the NPD Group/Distributor Track, Buffalo Tech accounted for just over 22 percent of U.S. channel sales through distributors during the first half of the year, with HP and its 16.6 percent share and NetApp and its 16.3 percent share placing them at a virtual tie for second place.

Adaptec came in fourth with an 11.3 percent share, while IBM followed with a 5.2 percent share, according to NPD.

HP's growth of 13.4 percentage points over the year-ago period stems from the two ways it approaches the NAS market, solution providers said.

At the high end, HP has grown its NAS business thanks to its acquisition early this year of PolyServe, a maker of storage software for clustering NAS appliances and consolidating Windows and Linux servers and storage into scalable utilities, said Phil Blackley, sales manager of Enterprise Computing Solutions, a Mission Viejo, Calif.-based solution provider.

At the entry level, HP has been growing HP ProLiant Storage Server NAS sales with a NAS appliance combining its ProLiant server with Microsoft Windows Storage Server software, said Dhruv Gulati, executive vice president at Lilien Systems, a Larkspur, Calif.-based HP solution provider.

SMB is a huge and growing business for NAS appliances, Gulati said. "HP is a pretty easy sell for small business and small office users," he said.

Buffalo Tech's strength comes from its appeal to both small businesses and to departments within large corporations and government institutions, said Larry Grippo, vice president of sales at Corporate Computer Solutions, Harrison, N.Y.

While NetApp is one of the two vendors with EMC for NAS overall, it is only third in the CMP Channel Best Sellers category because the company still gets nearly half its sales from direct channels, and because it also has a large number of direct solution providers who do not purchase through distribution.

-- Joseph F. Kovar

NAS 1st half 2007 Market Share Market Share Change 1st half '07 vs. 1st half '06 Buffalo Technology 22.30% -4.8 Hewlett-Packard 16.60% +13.4 Network Appliance 16.30% --2.8 Adaptec 11.30% +2.6 IBM 5.20% +3.9 * Ranking based on 1st half 2007 share of sales dollar volume. Highlighted vendor gained greatest share from 1st half 2006 to 1st half 2007 Source: The NPD Group/Distribution Track (Incudes GTDC Data), www.npd.com/lps/distributortrack